Welcome to the Human Resources and Management Blog

We announced our New England Abra Users Conference this week. This year’s conference will be on August 6th at the Atkinson Resort & Country Club in Atkinson, NH. This will be our biggest Users Conference Yet! We have two speakers this year, plenty of learning sessions, vendors and mini-sessions and the venue is amazing. We will be holding a golf scramble the day before that is open to all attendees. This will be a best ball format and we encourage you to join us and spend some time with Sage Executives, Dresser personnel and other Sage Abra Users. Check out the press release to learn more information about the day.

The HR Carnival #32 is up at the rainmaker group, go visit and see 27 of the greatest HR related blog posts you’ll find anywhere online.

Employee behavior is quite often a reflection of the guidance they receive from their superiors. So if managers are unmotivated, employees will be unmotivated. Thus, it’s very important to recognize that managers must establish a Motivational atmosphere by setting a positive example through the utilization of good leadership practices and attitude. Why is it so hard to motivate employees?

You Cannot Motivate People
People motivate themselves. Motivation has to come from within. The something that motivates employees and people in general is very different from one person to the other. There is no outside force that can motivate someone. The motivation that is sustainable is an internal motivation.

Money is Not a Good Motivator!
Money as great as it may be, is an external motivator. In fact, research demonstrates that after a pay raise, employees’ performance only improves for two weeks before returning to baseline. Any external motivator is usually fleeting.

What Motivates One Employee Does Not Motivate Another.
One of the key goals as an employer is learning exactly what makes your employees tick. It is absolutely different for everyone. Is it time with family, recognition, a job well done, service, learning etc. It could be a combination of things. But, the truth is just because something motivates you does not mean it will motivate someone else.

So, if you can’t motivate an employee, How do you provide a motivational atmosphere?

1. Motivating Employees Starts With Motivating Yourself.
You need to lead by example. Employees watch what you do and inevitably you will create a bunch of “mini-mes”. It’s amazing how, if you hate your job, it seems like everyone else does, too. Attitudes are contagious, you have to make sure yours is worth catching. Also, if you are enthusiastic about your job, it’s easier for others to be as well. Taking care of yourself first and making sure your duties are taken care of, will free you to see more clearly how others are doing in theirs, and allow you to help.

2. Align Goals of the Organization with Goals of the Employees.
Know what you want from your employee and make it very clear to them as well. Work with the employee set attainable goals that will benefit the company and motivate the employee. These goals should be measurable and when attained should be recognized and rewarded with something that will motivate the employee.

3. Understand What Motivates Each Individual Employee.
Your first step in providing a motivational atmosphere should be learning what motivates your employees. There are various ways to do this, but the most straight forward way is simply asking them. Have your employees jot down a few things on a piece of paper that motivate them and try to incorporate this into their job role. If your employee is motivated by time with family, reward them with time off. If your employee is motivated by travel create a contest to win a trip. Others may be motivated by learning, make sure you are getting those employees the training and challenges that they need. Knowing what motivates your employees allows you to redesign their roles slightly to make them more fulfilling.

4. Recognize that Supporting Employee Motivation is a Process.
No organization has the ability to change overnight. Creating a motivational atmosphere is a process. Once you have recognized what motivates your employees, you have what you need to start building a plan to incorporate it into their job. Finding what works for your company and what doesn’t will take time.

5. Support employee motivation by making it measurable.
Establish compensation systems, employee performance systems, organizational policies and procedures, etc., to support employee motivation. Once you have found the motivational systems that work for your organization establish goals. Make the goals specific, measurable, acceptable, realistic, timely, extending of capabilities and rewarding to those involved. Employees feel strong fulfillment when they know they have reached a goal and that they are making a difference within the organization.

When a company has motivated employees with clearly outlined goals, that feel as though they are contributing to the organization, and are gaining satisfaction from their position rather than just a paycheck, you will have an organization that attracts and keeps the best!

Come one, come all! It’s the Carnival of HR, Edition #31, boasting 24 entries that reflect a wide range of HR topics and bloggers. What a great opportunity to boost your knowledge on a variety of human capital topics!

Special thanks to Ann Bares at Compensation Force for hosting this edition.

Check out Dresser’s contribution! It’s last but not least.

Go Visit NOW!

It’s no secret to the HR industry that the internet has rapidly eclipsed want ads and classifieds as primary recruiting sources. As much as the internet has shaken the role of traditional advertising, so too has the job seeker/recruiter relationship become more search/find than push/pull. While nearly every business has at least started advertising positions on their website and online job boards, social networks open up yet another avenue for recruiters to find quality talent.

So how to take advantage of these networks for your business?

1 - Make Yourself Found

Before you even look for job seekers, you should be sure job seekers can find you. This includes, of course, the first step of creating and maintaining an up-to-date career center on your company’s website. Standard features now, are search functions, positions by department, and varying degrees of detail on the position. Most sites, especially if they are integrated with an HRIS, have an online application process that facilitates the first step for job seekers.

But, that “careers” page is just the beginning. Your company should have active accounts on LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook and niche job boards and networks such as Vault.com, Dice.com and CrunchBoard.com. By being available where qualified candidates can find you, you will be able to passively recruit motivated people.

2 - Fish Where the Fish Are

By finding sites to market your business in the step above, you should be able to identify the top sites where your hiring demographic is. Once that portal for your company is built, don’t bounce from those sites! Take some time to look at other companies, other people, and read what’s on their mind, look at what they link to, and try building “friends” or links, depending on social aspects available with the service. By being actively part of the communities where you’re searching for candidates, you’re more likely to make the right connections and get in front of the right people for your organization.

3 - Network Online… But Offline

Once your organization has firmly established an online reputation, it only makes sense to carry-on that campaign to offline efforts — have your social media contacts splashed on the literature you hand out at career days, for instance. And what could be cooler than a LinkedIn-ready key job?

Social media permeates the language of the existing and up-and-coming top job seekers and your corporate culture should too. While there are invariably stumbling blocks as networks shoot to popularity and then crash into obscurity, riding the wave as best you can and being available on the “latest and greatest” will keep your company in front of the best candidates out there for a lower overall cost than traditional media ever was.

Verone Lazio joined Dresser last week as the new HRMS Regional Manager for the Southeast. Most recently Verone was a Boulder-based Senior Implementation Specialist, for Unitime Systems. He will be in charge of driving business in Florida and Georgia as well as heading up our consulting efforts in the Southeast. Verone comes to us with 15 years experience.

“Verone’s Extensive experience with project management as well as his strong technical background and passion for HRMS customers is an excellent match for Dresser & Associates,” Says Mark Dresser, President of Dresser & Associates. “His proven abilities to manage multiple projects throughout the implementation and training stages and build strong client relationships will be a major benefit for all Dresser clients.”

Click Here to Read the entire Press Release.

In today’s business world, there’s hardly any company that doesn’t use some sort of software to handle human resources, whether it be a solution purely to manage and process payroll, or a robust enterprise-class human resources management system like Sage Abra HRMS. With greater pressure than ever on human resources departments to recruit, foster, and sustain a strong workforce, HR software has become an integral part of the business process especially for organizations with 50 or more employees.

The tendency towards greater and greater reliance on computer systems to manage core HR functions such as payroll, recruiting, training, benefits administration and government compliance is only natural following the overall trend to leverage computer software to do business more efficiently.

Today’s human resources professionals are accustomed to the more effective decision-making power that HR software affords, such as the ability to:

• Quickly produce customized reports on all aspects of HR
• Efficiently process payroll
• Allow employees to manage mundane operations such as updates to addresses, time-off requests, etc.
• Streamline employee performance evaluations and identify and cultivate talent within the organization
• Keep up-to-date with government regulations and compliance guidelines

Still, many smaller businesses are reluctant to move from a paper or spreadsheet-based human resources system into a more professional set-up. Up-front costs of software can be intimidating, especially when business owners neglect the long-term cost-savings that an appropriate HR software set-up will bring. Many tools are available for the decision-maker considering the move to a software system, including the ROI calculator, HRIS checklist and HR software whitepapers that we host on this website.

For medium-sized businesses and business’ already with some sort of HRIS, the questions may be different. For example, they might have a software system that met their needs and does not already, or have been orphaned by a support partner who no longer works in their area. Many entry-level HR software systems are not scalable as a business grows, forcing businesses to take more significant steps when they need to upgrade. Or a business may be completely satisfied with the human resources, payroll, and training aspects of their system and be looking to simply add new functionality.

Support and training are critical for the long-term success of any HR software installation (or any core business software implementation, for that matter). This is where the choice of software and business partner are essential. Expertise in implementations like your own are essential, and the prospective software buyer can learn a lot by seeing the testimonials, success stories, training and support resources offered by their prospective vendor.

Flexibility is important as well, and the best HR vendors offer many options to help new and existing customers get the most out of their system, such as a combination of web-based and classroom-based training classes.

Whether you already have an HR system, or are coming from an environment of spreadsheets and file folders, your search for HR software is likely to begin online. Dresser and Associates is happy to provide a wide array of resources for you, including product demos, whitepapers, HRIS selection tools and more. All are available free of charge after a simple registration process.

If you own or manage a small to medium sized business, you may have dismissed the idea of using an HRIS to help run your business as too costly and unnecessary. However, HR software can be of enormous benefit to smaller firms if it is chosen carefully and meets the unique requirements of the business. Here are five reasons to use hr software in your small to medium-sized business:

1. Improved decision-making effectiveness.
Having relevant data immediately available makes decision-making easy. Poor decision-making can arise from having inadequate information or a lack of correctly interrelated information. Good quality hr software allows for a number of relevant areas to be updated simultaneously and can ensure that you remember to input useful and important information on all aspects of human resources.

2. Improved Productivity.
Manual record keeping is very time consuming because all related records have to be up dated by hand. Using software to record information can free up staff for higher order functions. Additionally, employee inquiries can take up a lot of a human resource department’s (or manager’s) time and HR software can provide a self service option for employees to obtain relevant information themselves as well as saving staff time in obtaining it for employees. It can also save time and improve effectiveness for every step of the recruitment and selection process as well as for employee evaluation and training. This can lead to substantial productivity gains.

3. Measurable ROI:
Investment in HR software can lead to substantial cost savings despite the high initial investment required. If you choose software that specifically meets your business’ needs, you will be able to reduce your labor costs as many functions will be completed by the software itself and others will take a lot less time as a result of the software.

4. HR Modules Help Business Management Efficiency:
Easy integration of the human resources function into other aspects of business management is another benefit of HR software. Most software has modules that can be included or not according to your needs and which can also be linked to external software such as accounting and other reporting software to streamline all aspects of business management.

5. Improved Security:
HR software can also improve your business’ security by reducing the amount of paperwork and related security risks. Security has become a problem or at least a consideration for many businesses and reducing the number of ways in which security can be breached is certainly one way to limit the risk.

If you are unsure about which software package to purchase, install a trial version of the most likely HR software and test it out or take part in a live demo. This way you are not risking a lot of money if you make a mistake. Many of the better programs offer trial versions. Simply assess your business needs, look for HR software most likely to meet those needs and download or obtain the trial version. You’ll probably wonder why you waited so long.

Carnival of HR #21 is now up at the Race in the workplace blog. Along with a couple links to some of their most popular posts, you’ll find a wide array of valuable HR info. Make sure to visit their site at http://www.raceintheworkplace.com/

Today we held a spotlight webinar on the new Hybrid Payroll option featuring Kathy Pittsley of Henley Enterprises. The focus of this session was on in-house payroll and outsourced tax filing. If you missed this spotlight here are the top 6 things covered during the session:

• In-house/Outsourced Payroll Trends
• The Features & benefits of an integrated HRMS Solution
• What is a Hybrid Payroll Solution
• Features of Sage Compliance Services
• How does Payroll filing Services and year end printing work
• How Henley Enterprises used hybrid payroll to reduce their payroll costs by 2/3rds.

If you would like more information check out Henley’s testimonial. Also, check out one of my previous posts “New Hybrid Payroll Option: Companies are Beginning to Realize Big Savings with In-House Payroll and Outsourced Tax Filing,” for more information.